Landmark textile bank contract awarded in Wales

Nine Welsh local authorities have come together to let one of the largest textile bank contracts in the UK.

The local authorities have appointed West-Midlands based JMP Wilcox as the main contractor to exclusively operate textiles banks on council property for three years from June 2011, with the option for a two year extension.

Councils involved include Torfaen, Cardiff, Newport, Monmouthshire, Powys, Blaenau Gwent, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Caerphilly and Merthyr Tydfil.

In the past, textile banks have been operated in the region by a number of different charities and companies and the local authorities have received no income from them. But now, under the new arrangement, these will be replaced by JMP Wilcox banks and the councils will receive payment, based on the tonnage Wilcox collects.

The value of the contract has not been revealed, but JMP Wilcox is rolling out at least 100 textile banks in the region and expects to collect a minimum of 1,000 tonnes of textiles a year.

The contract was let through an OJEU restricted process, which required bidders to fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire before being asked to submit a bid against the councils’ specifications. A total of nine companies submitted bids. Alongside JMP Wilcox, these included: Viridor; I&G Cohen; Green World Recycling; Savannah Rags; TRAID; the Salvation Army; CYLCH and BRC Global Textiles.

JMP Wilcox was selected because it offered to pay a competitive price per tonne for the textiles and its sorting facility and fleet impressed the procurement team. Importantly, it could provide on-board weighing equipment on its vehicles to accurately weigh the textiles collected at each bank which the councils had requested in order to help them split the revenue from the banks effectively and collate accurate recycling figures.

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